Honey, I blinged up the VW Amarok
VW’s pickup gets brightened up considerably. A Honey Orange paint job is just the start, writes David Linklater.
Special-edition models make the pickup-truck world go around. That and city living. Volkswagen seems to be on a bit of roll with this one. The Amarok Canyon is a factory model rather than a local dress-up and something we’ve seen before. The last Canyon was offered here in 2015, it was very orange and it came with the option of some absurd cab-mounted driving lights (I say ‘‘some’’, it was actually an entire row) that I nearly smashed to pieces on the roof of an innercity Auckland car parking building. But I digress.
Canyon is back, sans the silly light option but still very orange (the colour is called Honey, apparently). At a time when everybody’s talking about the V6-engined Amarok, Canyon does succeed in putting a bit of focus and glamour back into the fourcylinder lineup.
Although you’re paying near-V6 price. The 2.0-litre Canyon is $4000 more expensive than the current four-pot flagship, taking it to within $2000 of the V6 TDI Highline.
Being a factory effort means Canyon benefits from a bit more than just flashy addenda. Although there’s plenty of that, as is the fashion in the double-cab pickup world.
Compared with the Highline, Canyon adds that Honey hue with decals, black detailing (grille, doorhandles, wheelarch extensions), side steps, sports bar with ‘‘Amarok’’ logo and heatinsulating/privacy glass.
Inside, there’s special trim with thick orange stitching and ‘‘Canyon’’ logos, plus you get the Premium multi-function display previously restricted to the flagship $86k Aventura V6 model.
Townie truck? Clearly. Although the Canyon isn’t any louder styling-wise than the likes of a Ford Ranger Wildtrak (same price, incidentally) or Holden Colorado Z71. You can get those in orange as well.
Amarok isn’t troubling the everpopular Ranger in terms of volume: in the world of 4WD pickups the Ford currently outsells the Dub nearly six-to-one.
But among those who know, Amarok is still arguably the one to have if you insist on using your enormous double-cab pickup truck as an on-road family/fashion vehicle. Which many do.
There’s a certain allure in the VW badge for this type of vehicle: it’s still a bit special, although this week’s local launch of the Mercedes-Benz X-class might undermine that a bit. It has the look, but it also has the performance, ride and handling.
Granted, the Canyon sticks with VW’s 2.0-litre turbo diesel, which makes it the smallest-capacity vehicle in the segment. It’s also down on torque compared with stalwarts like the Ranger (470Nm), Holden Colorado (440Nm) and Nissan Navara (450Nm).
But the Amarok is a dream to drive in class-context thanks to its smooth sequential-turbo power delivery and slick eight-speed gearbox. Incidentally, that eightspeeder is also the reason Amarok doesn’t have a low-range transfer case. VW argues that the low first and second ratios, plus the vehicle’s clever driver-assistance electronics, remove any need for an extra set of gears. The chassis hardware is certainly up to rockhopping antics: ladder-frame, heavy duty leaf springs at the back and all that good old-school stuff.
Off-road experts will no doubt argue the merits of the Amarok’s mechanicals all day long. I’m not really qualified to comment other than to say I’ve seen the VW do some amazing things off-road. But I can say that it’s not terribly relevant here. I’d be very surprised if anybody buys a Honey Orange Amarok Canyon and then heads straight out to backblocks to scrape it along some rocks.
On-road the Amarok is no Arteon, but still remarkably carlike in the way it delivers rolling acceleration and responds to the steering wheel. It’s certainly got a family friendly ride and the 4Motion system is an ace in the Amarok’s sleeve, because it’s working all the time on tarmac for maximum traction and stability. Almost every other pickup-truck rival is 2WD for road driving, only moving into 4WD when manually selected – which usually locks the centre differential and prohibits high-speed on-road driving.
The only other exception is the Mitsubishi Triton: higher-end versions have the brand’s Super Select 4WD system which delivers proper on-road all-wheel drive capability.
The interior, too, takes inspiration from VW’s passengercar lines. Not in the choice of materials, which are ‘‘durable’’ to put it politely. But build quality and design is very car-like and, of course, you get a swish infotainment setup (complete with
phone projection) familiar from the rest of the brand. The Canyon also gets the Premium multifunction display from the flagship Amarok V6 Aventura in the middle of the main instrument cluster.
And, of course, you get all the orange-themed Canyon interior trim that really gives the cabin a lift, including softball glove-like stitching along the sides of the seats.
Will the kids like the Canyon? They’ll like the idea of it and (maybe) the look. No pickup is as comfortable in the rear seats as a passenger-car or SUV, but Amarok does impress with a ‘‘cinemastyle’’ setup that puts the rear bench significantly higher than the front. The 60/40 split seat folds up to reveal some extra storage.
There are seatbelt reminders for the outer-rear seats, although one Amarok safety-issue remains: no side airbags for the rear-seat passengers.
They’re apparently on the agenda at the factory. Their absence is historical and a bit cynical: when the model was being developed, NCAP crash-testing did not take rear-passenger safety into account so VW decided not to bother with rear airbags. That’s changed now and so has VW’s attitude towards this safety feature.
Shame. It’s a strange oversight in a model that’s so impressively engineered in every other respect.